


deadlines, performances, and much needed coffee

by porcelaindollxx



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-01-22 07:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12476680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelaindollxx/pseuds/porcelaindollxx
Summary: How to make it through a semester of university, when there is so much of life that gets in the way?





	1. Chapter 1

University is actually really terrifying. 

That is the first thought Minghao had while we walks up to the campus, carrier in tow. He is miles away from home and he knows absolutely nobody. As if that wasn’t enough, Minghao isn’t even super fluent in Korean to begin with. Sure he had taken enough korean classes during his years in high school to be able to get by, but was he “social worthy”? That he hadn’t a clue. He didn’t really have anyone to practice korean with back in China other than his other Chinese friends whom were learning just like him. 

So the bigger question is, why even apply to a university in South Korea?

Because he got accepted to Korea National University of Arts, also known as the top performing arts school in Korea. Minghao wants to be a dancer, he’s loved dancing ever since he was 5 years old, and learning activities such as martial arts at a young age and then moving on to learning break dancing in Beijing when he grew older, he knew he would love to spend the rest of his life dancing. Were his parents ok with this? Not at first, however, they agreed to let their son do what he wants to do with his life and let him. Minghao considers himself lucky he has very accepting parents, most of his other friends he had back in Beijing were not granted the same fate.

So he applied to many colleges and universities in both China and South Korea that were for the performing arts, however was leaning heavily to go to school in South Korea. He always saw Seoul as the Hollywood of East Asia, so when he got accepted into Korea National University of the Arts, he knew he was packing up and leaving China to pursue his dream as a dancer. This is how he ends up on the front steps of the University.

A few strides in and he ends up at the student services desk inside the university.

“Hello there! How may I help you?” the woman behind the counter asks him.

“Uh- Hi, I’m Seo Myungo. I would like to pick up my dorm keycard.” The woman nods as she begins typing away on her computer. Minghao uses his korean name for his school transcripts but when he will introduce himself to others, he decides that he’ll use his Chinese name. 

“Alright!” she says cheerfully, “You’re located in the C building. Here is a map of the campus, here is your dorming information, and lastly, here is your keycard. Enjoy your semester!”

“Thank you,” he says as he does a quick bow and walks out of the building. The map is rather simple and he realizes there are 7 dorm buildings located around the university, the closest building to the college is A while the further out you go you reach G. Minghao finds it very convenient to live only a few blocks away. He looks at the dorm information page she had given him as well; It has his roommates name on it, as well as his room number.

“Moon Junhui,” he reads out loud as he picks up his pace.

-

Jun hears a knock on the door as soon as he sits on the couch. He thinks it’s rather odd but then the familiar beep of the access card before the door is opened.

“Hello?” says the voice of a man. 

“Come in~” Jun sing-songs, he doesn’t consider himself to be the shy type.

A brunette guy comes into the room with a black cap and a shit-ton of piercings on his ears and rings on his fingers. “Hi, I’m Seo Myungo, you’re roommate,” the man quickly introduces, “but you can call me Minghao, I’d prefer it if you did.”

Jun picks up the accent as soon as Minghao opens his mouth and after the introduction, finds out his new roommate is Chinese. Hello, this couldn’t have been a better day. 

“I’m Wen Junhui, just call me Jun though, everyone else does,” he introduces in Mandarin, and he could have sworn he heard Minghao sigh as soon as he does.

“Thank God, I was so nervous with my korean. Was it that obvious?” Minghao asks as he finally closes the door bringing his luggage along with him. 

“Oh definitely, but its fine. I can talk to you in Korean if you’d rather practice on your language skills?”

“Yes! Definitely. I mean, I’ll definitely also speak in Chinese with you but I’m really glad you’d help me.”

“Of course, what are room mates for?” he rhetorically asks, as he gets up and walks up to Minghao. “Is that all you brought?” He asks, tilting his head.

“Er- yeah. I literally just flew in from China today. Since I’m gonna be living here for a while I’ve decided to just buy what I need here.” Minghao shrugs as he walks over to the short hallway with the doors. “Have you chosen a room?

The dorm isn’t very big, maybe about the size of a small apartment. To the left of the entrance is a small kitchen area, with a small table that sits about 4 people at the extreme left. Through there to the right of the table, there is an open entrance that leads to the living room and if you turn right from the living room, there are two bedrooms and a bathroom all close to each other in a small hallway.

“Oh, I put my stuff in the first door, so you could have the one at the end of the hall." Minghao nods as he starts walking towards his room.

Jun’s phone rings as Minghao walks away and Jun looks at the screen to see Wonwoo’s name on the ID. 

“Hey! Are you almost done your shift?” he answers.

He hears Wonwoo chuckle on the other end, “Yeah I’ll be done in about a half hour if you wanna meet me here? The gang is gonna meet up here after my shift, are you down?”

“Sure!” Jun excitedly replies back, “Oh, I met my roommate, should I bring him a long or is that a no-go?”

“Sure, if you want to, I’m sure the guys wouldn’t mind either.”

“See you soon then,” he says as he hangs up the call.

“Hey Minghao!”


	2. Chapter 2

Seungcheol wakes up and the first thing he does is look at his phone. 9:15am, and a few notifications of likes on his newest Instagram post. He figures it’s a rather reasonable time to get up and stretches before noticing he’s alone in his bed. This is odd because he knew that going to sleep, his boyfriend was in his bed with him, and it’s way to early for his boyfriend to be out and about at this “un-Godly hour” as he would refer to any hour up until 11:30am.

He rubs his eyes and sighs when he hears faint clicking in the distance. He wants to roll his eyes as well, however this should be expected and so he doesn’t. Instead, he gets up and follows the sound to the desk in his living room where said boyfriend is currently on a composing program with his massive headphones on his ears.

“Jihoon, how long have you been here?” He asks while giving a back hug to the one on the computer and giving him a sleepy kiss on the cheek. This startles the man on the computer and causes him to take off his headphones. Seungcheol can still hear the music playing. 

“Huh?” Replies a sleepy Jihoon. He rubs his eyes, “What time is it?” But it’s more of a rhetorical question as he looks over at the time himself. “I dunno Cheol, I had trouble sleeping last night so I came here to work on the piece I have due by the end of the week.”

Jihoon is in his second year of the School of Music in the Bachelors of Composing. He had gotten the highest grade in the class the first year and placed first on the honour roll. So for the summer, the school gave him some business cards of companies that could use his skills. He applied to every single one of them and had many call-backs. Right now, he is on his last project before school starts again and it’s to make a commercial jingle. Jihoon realizes after this gig, that he will never attempt to make commercial jingles again. He erased about 15 different tracks before finally finding one that sort-of has a good feel, but he feels that if he has to listen to it again for the next 12h, he’ll scrap this one too. Things are not looking too good.

“Don’t lie,” Seungcheol counters as he digs his face into his boyfriends neck.

“I am not!” Jihoon says in an annoyed tone. “I was stressing about this so much that I was losing sleep over it anyways, might as well try to produce something out of that.” He sighs as he leans into his boyfriend, “promise me if I ever agree to another commercial jingle you’ll slap the fuck out of me?”

Seungcheol laughs as he un-clings from Jihoon, “Deal, however, you’re not allowed to retaliate.” Jihoon only smiles. 

“Ready for breakfast?”

“Bed?” Jihoon asks as he looks up at Seungcheol, who gives him a little chuckle. “Fine, you take a small nap while I take my time making breakfast, we’re meeting up with Wonwoo, Jun, and the others later so you can’t sleep all day.”

Jihoon nods sleepily as he slowly gets up from his seat and heads over to their room. Seungcheol watches him go and gives a little smile. He knows how much stress his boyfriend has been under lately, and it sucks that he could only ever console him with cuddles; which to his relief Jihoon is very open to receiving if it’s from him. He and Jihoon have been dating for four years now. They had met in elementary school and weren’t on the best of terms with each other, however in the 5th grade they were forced to do a project together and after 2 weeks of having to get along and work together to get this done, they became really good friends. Jihoon, Seungcheol learned, didn’t really have any friends so he brought him in to his best friends Soonyoung and Wonwoo. 

This worked in Seungcheol’s favour because he always felt that Soonyoung and Wonwoo were much closer. So as time passed, even though they all hung out together often and they were known as a click, it was Soonyoung and Wonwoo, and Jihoon and Seungcheol. The four were super close and it was only the four of them until they had met Jun, Jeonghan, and Mingyu in high school. 

So how was it that Jihoon and Seungcheol started dating? That’s not the nicest of stories, and Seungcheol would rather forget the first few months of their relationship, so his mind seldom wanders there.

As promised, Seungcheol takes his time to make breakfast, and gives Jihoon an hour in bed. Since breakfast doesn’t take long in general to prepare, he watched and episode of some random show that seemed interesting on netflix, took a shower, and printed the syllabus’ he’ll be needing for the first week of school before making breakfast.

-

“Here is your latte made with soy, have yourself a good day!” Wonwoo says as he smiles at the customer before serving the next client in line who just happens to be Jun. “Oh, hello you,” Wonwoo says with a small smile. “Weren’t you bringing your roommate or something?”

Jun leans on the counter, he’s the only client in line so he couldn’t care less about talking with Wonwoo. “No, he wasn’t up for it. He just flew in from China and was kinda tired, so he was gonna nap instead,” Jun says as he shrugs. 

“Oh, he’s Chinese?”

“I know, right! What are the odds. So it’s great to have someone to talk to in my native tongue,” Jun says that last part dramatically and Wonwoo bursts out a laugh.

“‘my native tongue’ he says, Jun do you even remember how to speak Chinese?”

Jun dramatically put a hand over his chest and drops his jaw in fake disbelief. “I am triggered!” he says after he gasps, “I don’t only converse with you guys you know. I still have my family in China that I talk to with; my grandma and grandpa only speak Chinese.”

“Oh give me a break, you’ve been living here since the 9th grade and I’ve only ever heard you speak Chinese to your parents in high school.” 

“Yeah, i know, now we do this Chinese/Korean mix language thing,” he says as he shrugs. 

Wonwoo’s head perks up when the bell rings, signalling that a customer has come in.

“Yoon Jeonghan!” Wonwoo announced, “where is your other half?”

Jeonghan narrowed his eyes as he walked over to the counter where Jun was standing. “In America,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “It’s been two weeks. He’ll finally be on Korean soil tomorrow.”

“It’s already been two weeks?” Wonwoo teased.

“‘already’ he says,” Jeonghan says while rolling his eyes, he isn’t in the best of moods, Wonwoo could tell. “When do you get off?” Jeonghan asks, jumping off topic.

“In about 15, you guys should find a seat before the rush comes and there isn’t enough room.” Both Jun and Jeonghan nod as they go sit at one of the bigger booths at the corner of the café. That’s when Jihoon and Seungcheol walk in, Wonwoo gestures to the booth Jeonghan and Jun set themselves at. Seungcheol nods as they both head towards it.

-

When Wonwoo finally finishes his shift, he brings everybody’s usual order at their table. 

“Soonyoung if you were that busy, you didn’t have to come,” Wonwoo says as he gestures his head to the notebook Soonyoung is scribbling on. 

“To be honest, I really needed a caffeine kick because I’m struggling so hard with this choreo!” Soonyoung says as he runs both his hands through his hair. 

“You know, school hasn’t started yet, right?” Mingyu comments.

Soonyoung slowly turns his head towards mingyu with narrowes eyes, Jun and Wonwoo both stifle a snort. “Thanks for that, genius,” he answers slowly, “apparently I just enjoy stressing for no reason,” he challenges as he returns to his paper. Mingyu looks at his coffee cup and put both hands on it in response.

“The professor asked him to choreograph a dance for a small Produce 101 unit thing, you know, that competition show where people are idols for a year and then they disband,” Wonwoo comments.

Mingyu shook his head. He had no idea what show Wonwoo was talking about because while he went to a university for the arts, he was in the school of visual arts to become an architect. He guesses the only reason why Wonwoo would know is due to the fact that he’s really close to Soonyoung, because he too is in the visual arts department getting a degree in design.

“Yeah well only four students were chosen to do that and I was one of them. I have two weeks left before I need to present it and I threw out about 20 different ideas and versions of this dance I’m going crazy! I’ve never been so stressed about a choreography before.”

“Maybe because it’s going to be on TV this time. I mean, this is huge Soonyoung why didn’t you say anything?” Seungcheol asked, while putting his arm around Jihoon. “Jihoon is in the same boat as you anyways, maybe you guys could help each other.” Seungcheol smiles as he put his head on Jihoon’s shoulder thinking about what a good idea he just though of until he notices Jeonghan’s expression.

“Can you literally not.”

“Listen just because your boyfriend isn’t here doesn’t mean you can be salty. Besides, you are the worst one of any of us when it comes to PDA so shove it,” Seungcheol counters. Jeonghan just rolls his eyes. Jihoon laughs behind his hand as he pets Seungcheol’s head with the other.

“Ok~, why are there too many bad vibes today? I’m severely not happy,” Jun comments. “You aren’t the only one,” Mingyu agrees, while he takes a sip of his coffee.

“Sorry,” Jeonghan says, Soonyoung follows. 

“School hasn’t even started, imagine when we’re all stressed out,” Wonwoo says as he takes a sip from his coffee cup.

“That’s where our benefit of knowing you comes in,” Jihoon laughs, “nonstop coffee supplier. You, my friend, are my most important friendship.”

Wonwoo laughs, “you guys only love me for my coffee supply, I am greatly offended.”

They all laugh at that.


	3. Chapter 3

Jeonghan is sitting in the waiting area at the airport. He’s currently waiting for his boyfriend, Joshua, to come back from the States, which he has spent the last two weeks in. Jeonghan has been told that he has a clingy character about him, however he’s always denied it until Joshua went back to the states and now he’s very aware of this trait. Because of the time differences, it was hard to both be available at the same time which made this 2 week long distant relationship extremely hard for Jeonghan. The person who felt this the most other than Jeonghan, was Jeonghan’s go-to and that’s his best friend Seungcheol. Seungcheol is always very straight forward with Jeonghan and will tell him things that he doesn’t necessarily want to hear. 

Seungcheol is the reason why Jeonghan even is hanging around the people he is with now. Jeonghan was the new kid back in 8th grade, which honestly, he felt at the time sucked so much because who goes into middle school that late. All the cliques are already established and people are reluctant to let new people in. Worse of all was that Jeonghan was really shy in middle school and most of high school. So it was Seungcheol who had approached him in the cafeteria one day when all three of Seungcheol’s friends hadn’t shown up to school.

 

_“Is this seat taken?” asked the boy with the messy hair. Jeonghan was startled at first but then shook his head._

_“Can I sit here then? My friends all decided to ditch me today, so I’m here by myself.”_

_“Sure,” Jeonghan answered in a small voice._

_“My name is Seungcheol. What’s your name? I feel like I’ve never seen you before?” Seungcheol said as he sat down on the seat across from Jeonghan._

_“I’m Jeonghan. I’m new this year, and I don’t tend to draw attention to myself which is probably why you haven’t seen me,” he offers as he fiddles his chopsticks in his rice, not feeling particularly hungry._

_“You haven’t made any friends yet?” the boy with the messy hair asked after he finished a bite of his food. Jeonghan only shook his head._

_“Well, if you don’t mind, you can definitely hang out with me and my friends, they wouldn’t mind at all.”_

 

He never thought making friends was so easy until he met them, and they’ve been together ever since. However, he stuck closer with Seungcheol since he was the one who invited him into their group in the first place.

Jeonghan’s phone vibrates in his pocket. 

**From: Seungcheollie**  
Has Joshua arrived yet?

 **To: Seungcheollie**  
Nope, plane delayed.

He types as someone approaches him. 

“Hey Jeonghan! Long time no see.” Jeonghan lifts his head after sending the text to see Vernon.

“Hello Vernon,” Jeonghan greets him as Vernon takes a seat beside Jeonghan in the waiting area.

Jeonghan hasn’t seen Vernon since Joshua left for the states two weeks ago. And even if he feels bad thinking it, he isn’t really friend’s with Vernon. He knows Vernon because he’s dating Seungkwan who is studying Drama with him and Seungcheol. But he feels bad about it because the only reason why he knows Joshua is through the guy sitting right next to him.

 

_Jeonghan and Seungkwan were both in a theatre play together. And after the curtain call they were left to their families, friends, and loved ones who decided to come down to watch them perform._

_Jeonghan was waiting with Seungkwan for their respective friends all the while complimenting each other on their hard work and how much it had paid off. Jeonghan really liked Seungkwan, he had energy enough for the both of them and he definitely has Seungkwan to thank for the confidence he has now about being on stage as the two of them would rehearse lines together a lot even after rehearsal was over. Jeonghan had known of Seungkwan having a boyfriend who was studying music but never met him in person until that night._

_While Jeonghan was waiting for his massive group of friends to go hang out together after the show, Seungkwan ran to a man with short dirty blond hair brushed over to the side about the same height as Seungkwan himself, and went to give him a massive hug, except said guy wasn’t alone._

_“Guys, guys I have to introduce you to the person who has kept me sane through out this entire rehearsal for this performance, let me tell you,” Seungkwan said as he pointed to Jeonghan._

_“Oh God Seungkwan please, if anything you’re the reason why I did so well today.”_

_Seungkwan waved his hand frantically the other hand holding on to the hand of the guy he just hugged. “Don’t even start.”_

_“Alrighty~,” the blondish haired man said, shaking his head while giving Jeonghan a smile, “Thank you for keeping my boyfriend sane then.” He chuckled a bit at that. “My name is Vernon, nice to meet you,” he greeted as he gave a small bow._

_“Jeonghan,” he replied, bowing back._

_“Oh, and this is my best friend who came to accompany me to Seungkwan’s performance- Joshua.”_

_Has Jeonghan ever felt that he wasn’t attractive? Sure, as plenty of people have, however he has not felt so much so as to while standing in the presence of Joshua._

_“Hi, I’m Jeonghan.” Why did he reintroduce himself? He sure as hell couldn’t tell you the thoughts that ran through his mind before he spoke them. He even almost stuttered! How to act normal?_

_“Nice to meet you,” he said with a really nice voice that Jeonghan felt taken aback by._

_“Jeonghan!” He heard Wonwoo’s voice call out, and there his friends were to rescue him from a potentially big social disaster._

_“Hey!” He called back as to say that he was going to come over. “It was really nice to meet you guys, and thank you so much Seungkwan, I mean it.”_

_Seungkwan only smiled at him as he went off to his friends._

_At the time, Jeonghan was working at the coffee shop Wonwoo is currently working at. They used to work shifts together and it was a lot of fun working with one of your best friends, however when the course load got too much he had to quit leaving Wonwoo on his own at the café. Back to then, Jeonghan was working with Wonwoo and they were the only ones working because it was in between rush hours and by chance Joshua walked in._

_As the chime rang to signify that a customer had come through, Jeonghan froze when he noticed who it was. “No, no, no, no, no, Wonwoo you take it,” he said under his breath. It had been a few weeks since the performance, but he wasn’t about to risk it._

_“What, why?” Wonwoo was looking at the guy who just walked in place his stuff at a nearby unoccupied table._

_“He’s best friends with Seungkwan’s boyfriend and I almost made a fool of myself in front of him, please~” he begged._

_Wonwoo watched as Joshua approached the counter and raised an eyebrow. “Jeonghan,” he started loudly, “can you take this one I gotta use the washroom.” He turned to a stunned Jeonghan as he smirked at him and walked away from the counter._

_Jeonghan just chuckled awkwardly at Joshua as he watched his co-worker leave. He could not believe his friend would just betray him like that._

_“Hey~”_

_“Hi, may I please get a double shot americano please?”_

_“Sure thing,” Jeonghan said, as he let out a small sigh, Joshua didn’t recognize him, “which size would you like it?”_

_“Oh, definitely large. I’ll be needing it to complete a project, so,” he said without finishing the sentence, “anyway, how much do I owe you?”_

_“4,500₩,” he answered as Joshua pulled out the change and then left a tip._

_While Jeonghan was busy preparing his drink, Joshua spoke up, “I know you, right? From Seungkwan’s performance? We didn’t really get to talk.”_

_Jeonghan blinked hard once before a blinking a few times quickly after that, pretending to focus really hard on the espresso machine. “Oh? Right! Vernon’s friend?” he played naÏve, “sorry I couldn’t stay longer with you guys.”_

_“Oh no, I just wanted to compliment you on your performance but you ran away so quickly after we were introduced,” he said leaning a bit on the counter, “Is it ok if I still give you my compliments?”_

_“Sure~” Jeonghan said with a smile before handing over his americano._

_“I just wanted to let you know you performed really well. Like really well. You definitely caught my attention your entire show, so I was glad that I got to meet you.” Wonwoo came back from the back just about then. “So, anyway, maybe I’ll see you at your next performance,” Joshua said with a smile as he took his cup and sent a smile at Jeonghan before returning back to his seat._

_One look on Jeonghan’s face after that and Wonwoo chuckled, making sure that he wasn’t over heard, “I swear to God, I don’t know what just happened but I think I deserve a thank you, and also a story,” he said as he started to serve the next customer. Jeonghan was in such a good mood the rest of the shift._

 

“Where is Seungkwan?” Jeonghan asked, usually they’re as attached to the hip as he and Joshua.

“He isn’t feeling well at all,” Vernon sighs as he stretches his legs, “at least it’s before the start of the semester.” 

Jeonghan only nodded. The semester starts in about a week and that’s when they get their huge performance piece, and they’ll have to audition for the parts they want. He hopes Seungkwan will get better before then.

When Joshua comes through the gates about 20 minutes later, all Jeonghan wants to do it go up to him and shower him in kisses, however, Joshua is more private about PDA and he tries really hard to respect that. So a bear hug will have to do.

“Joshuji!” he calls Joshua by his nickname he decided to give him, as he engulfs him in a massive hug, and gives him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve missed you!”

“Hey Jeonghan,” Joshua says accepting the hug.

When Jeonghan finally decided to let go, Vernon also greeted Joshua by giving him a hug. “Long time no see, man,” he says in English. Jeonghan feels very out of place when he’s with Joshua and Vernon because they very seldom speak in korean with each other and Jeonghan has a 10% knowledge of the English language. 

With that they go get Joshua’s things and go their separate ways as Joshua promises to meet up with Vernon tomorrow and they get into Jeonghan’s car.

Of course at home, Jeonghan can show all the affection he wants.

-

“This is the place where you could find me most of the time,” Jun says as he enters the coffee shop. Minghao looks around, it’s pretty big; starting from the door and heading in has small round wooden tables to bigger booths. All along the right hand side, the wall is made of glass, and the right is made of red bricks. straight ahead is an evergreen coloured rug that leads to the service area. Jun waves at the guy behind the counter. He has chestnut brown hair and is wearing big round glasses. Kind of Harry Potter styled, however the rims were thinner and in a golden colour. Said man is talking to a taller guy leaning against the counter.

“Hello~,” Jun sing-songed. 

“Where have you been stranger? It’s been like 3 days!” The man with the glasses says. 

“Hey, hey, hey now, I’ve got other obligations,” Jun says as he rolls his eyes. “Guys, this is Minghao! He’s my roommate! My _other_ obligation. I’ve been showing him around campus and showing him the ropes. He’s in the School of Dance like Soonyoung and I so I’m gonna go introduce them today.”

The guy behind the counter lifted his head in acknowledgment but didn’t really say anything else. The taller one though took the opportunity to introduce himself.

“Hi, I’m Mingyu,” he says.

“Wonwoo,” greets the guy behind the counter wiping his hands on his apron. “Am I getting you guys anything, or?”

“Yes~, a large cappuccino for me, and you?” he says, turning to Minghao.

“Oh, just a hot chocolate for me, thank you.” He argues for a bit when Jun decides to pay for them both but in the end decides to let him, remembering to owe him a coffee later on. 

When they say their goodbyes and leave the café, Mingyu turns to Wonwoo.

“Alrighty there, you had your emo stage in highschool, you’re gonna need to come outta that now.”

Wonwoo smirks when he turns to his friend, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That entire interaction was the most stoic I’ve ever seen you in a long while. Please snap out of it,” Mingyu says leaning closer over the counter.

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean it,” Wonwoo says, looking around for equipment to clean.

“I get it, but stop.”

-

“And this is our dance studio! Your to-be home away from home. Even more than the dorm.” 

Minghao looks around curiously. It is massive, and he’s super thankful for it. “The entire School of Dance gets their own key card to this place, so you could spend hours in here. Soonyoung and I have spent 13h in here once when I was helping him with choreography.” 

“What’s Soonyoung’s bachelors in? Dance performance, like us?”

Jun shakes his head. “He’s doing a bachelor of choreography.”

Minghao starts wandering around the big open space. It could easily fit 50 people with enough space for each of them. And this is only one room of the Building of Dance. “This is so amazing,” Minghao says to himself. 

At that moment he hears a door open and a guy comes through with blonde hair and a piercing on his left ear.

“Junhui~” he says happily, “I finally got the choreo down for that produce 101 unit thing. I’m really gonna need to practice it with you, please~” He says almost jogging towards Jun. 

“Duh. No problem I’ll help you. Oh maybe… Hey Minghao!” Jun calls out as he gestures for Minghao to go towards them.

“Soonyoung, this is Minghao. He’s my roommate, he’s also in Dance Performance, maybe he wouldn’t mind helping out with the choreo either?” he asks looking at Minghao, “This is Soonyoung, he’s currently working on a choreo for a small unit in that TV show called Produce 101 if you’ve heard of it. He could probably use your help.”

“Sure,” Minghao nods as he bows to Soonyoung, “nice to meet you. I’ve been dancing since I was 5 years old, so I hope you’ll find me useful.”

Soonyoung only smiled. “Of course, the more the better to be honest. So this is what a got,” he says as he takes out his speakers and the song blasts through as he starts to dance what’s he’s been working on for the past 2 weeks, proudly.


	4. Chapter 4

Wonwoo is currently reading from his notes that he took in his visual designs class this morning. Right now, he’s on his break in between classes sitting on a bench near his next class, and since he’s working during the semester he knows he has to stay on track with his studies to make sure that he’s able to pass well this semester. Granted, he’s always been able to pull it off, but this semester his teachers have been specifying that it will be more demanding. He knows it already though, he’s seen the syllabus. He feels like by the middle of it all he’s going to be Jihoon and Soonyoung level of stressed. Usually, when he’s stressed, he tends to stay away from them both because they don’t help, they just add on about how stressed they are and it’s not beneficial. In those cases, he hangs around with Jeonghan- when he’s not attached to Joshua, which isn’t many times, thankfully he likes his friend’s boyfriend; he’s has this relaxing aura about him, which, to be honest, is probably why Jeonghan likes him so much. Then there is Jun, who he has rarely seen stressed because he takes a lot of situations lightly and he rather be happy. Wonwoo prefers being in Jun’s company anyways, it’s usually if Jun isn’t available that he’ll go to Jeonghan.

Wonwoo looks up when he hears his name being called out to see Mingyu. Mingyu and him are both in the School of Design so they see each other often and also have a few classes together. Not only that, they, along with Soonyoung are roommates. It was only going to be Soonyoung and Wonwoo for the longest time, however when they found out they were placed in a room with a third bed and asked to either find someone or have someone randomly chosen, they asked Mingyu if he wanted to room with them. This combination worked well anyways, they’re all pretty quiet. Soonyoung is never at the dorm and when he is he’s exhausted from practice that he goes to sleep right away, wakes up in the morning goes to practice and repeats the cycle. Soonyoung’s exams are performances so since the dorm isn’t big enough to practice at he practices at the studio. Mingyu is good to have around because he’s good company, and also he has a few classes with Wonwoo that makes studying for them not so bad. Come to think of it, most of their friends are evaluated on how they perform, however for himself and Mingyu, who have more theory classes, have to study a lot more from textbooks, than his friends who have one theory class per semester- sometimes. 

“Hey,” Wonwoo replies, however he quickly returns back to his notes. 

“Do you have work tonight?” Mingyu asks eyeing Wonwoo’s notes as he sits down next to him.

“Ah- no,” he shakes his head, “But I do tomorrow and the day after so I won’t have much time to review the classes if I want to sleep so,” he explains.

Wonwoo is the only one who works during the school semester in their group of friends, he makes it work so that he could have a job. Anyways, his dorm and education don’t pay for themselves. His friends are fortunate where they can afford not to work, their parents help them out a lot, Wonwoo doesn’t exactly have it that easy. At least he lives in the dorms, it’s more affordable than to live in an apartment as some of his friends already do. 

“Plans after this class? It’s your last of the day right?”

“Uh, I think Jun wanted to do something since he’s been with Soonyoung a lot practicing that choreo. Now that it’s over, he wants to watch like a movie or something.” Mingyu only nods his head in response.

The class before starts to leave the classroom, so he and Mingyu stand up to get to their places.

-

Minghao is trying really hard to remember all the places Jun showed him, however, right now, he can’t really remember it all and he’s gotten himself lost. Great. He was just trying to get to the studio and he knows he isn’t anywhere familiar. He looks at his phone and it’s at 20% so he decides to ask someone around instead of using the last of his battery. 

“Hey, you know where I could find-” he stops because he knows this person. 

“Hey! Jun’s roommate right?” Recognition sparks in his eyes.

“Yeah! I’m really sorry, I forgot your name,” Minghao says as he rubs his head.

“Mingyu.”

“Right! Nice to run into you again. Uh, I was just wondering if you knew where the studio was? Where are we? I’m so lost.” He felt so ridiculous; his Korean was super broken, he could even tell, and he felt super self-conscious about it.

“The one Soonyoung and Jun always go to?” 

“Sure?” He’s guessing it’s that one but who knows. At least if Soonyoung and Jun are there it’ll be easier since they’re both in the School of Dance; they’ll know where he’s looking for if it turns out it’s not the same place Jun showed him.

“It’ll just be easier if I bring you. I don’t know how you got here but this is the School of Visual Arts. Wonwoo, the other guy you met at the cafe, and I go here.” He says as he leads the way, going back where Minghao came from. 

“Oh, right I remember. He wasn’t too talkative.”

“Yeah,” Mingyu sighs, “don’t take it personal, he’s not the most open to strangers.” 

Minghao only shrugs, he’s not going to judge. “You’re not from here, right? Like Korea,” Mingyu says that last part right away afraid he would have offended him before he even got to know him.

“Nope. China. Wanted to come to South Korea for a while now, so when I got accepted to the school I decided why not. I want to perform, it’s my favourite thing to do. And you? School of Visual Arts?”

“Yeah in the Bachelors of Architecture program. I loved designing things when I was younger, now I could make them into buildings.”

“That’s cool,” Minghao says as he looks at Mingyu. They’re almost the same height, however, Mingyu is slightly taller than him. 

They walk silently for about 3 minutes. “How’d you and Jun meet? I feel like you guys are two totally different people,” Minghao asks, breaking the silence.

“I know, right. But we met in high school? We have this group of friends that we were with since, I was the last one in actually. You should meet them, we’re all so different. But, I don’t know, we match somehow, we’ve been together for so long, so I guess it works.” Mingyu shrugs, knowing full well that he didn’t make too much sense. He got close with Wonwoo and Seungcheol first, which is how he got into their group. He hung around other people before that, he considers them the more popular crowd, but he didn’t feel too included, so when he started talking with Seungcheol and Wonwoo he immediately clung onto their friendship. Their friendship came with the friendship of four others and he didn’t mind one bit.

“How do you like Jun by the way?” Mingyu asks.

“Oh he’s great, he’s been so helpful with everything, I’m so glad I met him right away. He’s really trying to make things easy for me.”

“Yeah, Jun knows what it was to move here and not fully comprehending the language and culture so, he must try to make it easier on you than it was on him.” Mingyu looks around. “There! That’s your dance studio.”

“Yes! Exactly!” He was so happy, it was the same one Jun showed him. “Thank you so much for all your help, Mingyu. I’ll see you around,” he says as he walks to the building in front of him. He has a project and he wants to get started on it right away.

-

Jihoon was at the café with his laptop and his big headphones ignoring the world. He has a piece he should be working on, but he doesn’t want to so he’s glad when Wonwoo comes and sits across from him with two coffee cups in hand. He takes off his headphones. “Are you done?” Jihoon asks before thanking him for the coffee. 

“Yeah, it was only a small shift today. Thankfully anyways, I was with Jun yesterday and I didn’t get to go over some class notes that I had intended on, so I get to do that tonight.”

“At least one of us is being productive. I’ve been staring at this program for the past hour and got nothing done.” Jihoon slouches in his chair a bit and then smirks before tilting his head slightly, “you were with Jun last night?”

Wonwoo bit the inside of his cheek, “Yeah, he wanted to do something since he was with Soonyoung practicing his choreography for the produce 101 thing almost everyday recently so we just went to go watch a movie. What about you and Seungcheol, how are you guys doing?” He asks, switching this conversation real quick.

“We’re fine. We’ve both been busy with our individual projects so we don’t get to see each other until late at night anyways. But it’s gonna work out, it usually does.” Jihoon finally takes a sip from his coffee. “Just sucks that we can’t see each other more often even if we live together.” 

Jihoon feels most bad when they’re both at home and they barely acknowledge each other, not out of spite, but just because Jihoon is on his program composing his music with his huge head phones, and when he gets into it, he’s in this whole other world; this could last for hours. If Seungcheol is home, he’ll remind Jihoon that eating and sleeping are things that a human needs in order to live a healthy life, but Seungcheol is in the School of Directing so he’s often not home because his projects are on site. Sometimes, when Jihoon is ahead of his work he’ll make a backtrack to whatever video Seungcheol is working on. Usually he likes the idea of being alone, he’s very much an introvert, all of the friends he has now were introduced to him; All the friends that he has now, has got to do with Seungcheol, his very extroverted boyfriend. Sometimes he thinks about how it’s funny that they ended up together when because they are so different in a lot of ways. Seungcheol says that they balance each other, Seungcheol is the calm to Jihoon’s rage, Jihoon is the rational one to Seungcheol’s fantasies. They keep each other from going full on other end of the spectrum, which Jihoon can appreciates it. And it’s not like he can deny it, he sees it himself quite often. 

Usually if he wants company though, he’ll go to Wonwoo or Soonyoung, he still feels closest to them since they were the people he stuck with the longest. 

“Are you going to stay here any longer?” Wonwoo asks, taking out his car keys, “I could give you a lift if you want.”

Woozi shuts his laptop and lets out a laugh. “God, no. I’m starting to think I won’t get anywhere with this today,” he says as he puts his laptop in his backpack. 

Wonwoo smiles as he gets up, “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

-

“You have to take it higher~” Dokyeom says, showing with his index finger a higher key.

“I think my vocal cords are going to collapse,” Joshua says. They’re sitting on chairs facing each other in a spacious practice room. However, they are the only ones in the room.

Both Joshua and Dokyeom are in the School of Music in vocal music. They’re really close friends but they only met last year. Dokyeom was the one to introduce himself to Joshua when Joshua had a performance presentation and his voice cracked in the middle of it. He felt really bummed out about it, even if the teacher says it happens to everyone at some point. Dokyeom had the best vocal performance that day but he went to go talk to Joshua because he had an experience similar in a different class. Needless to say, they rehearsed a lot together afterwards. 

“You’re so dramatic,” Dokyeom says after letting out a chuckle, “your vocal cords definitely will not collapse. Let’s go again.”

“Hey~, am I interrupting,” Vernon says as he leans on the door frame.

Dokyeom puts his head in his left hand while Joshua has the biggest smile on his face. “You are my best friend for a reason aren’t you,” he says in English, then switches to Korean as he turns to Dokyeom, “Guess it means I gotta go,” he stands from the chair he was sitting in putting his backpack on him.

Dokyeom looks up and smiles, “Yeah, guess so. See you tomorrow?” he asks as Joshua starts walking towards Vernon.

“Yup. See ya!”

“How was practice?” Vernon asks as they walk away from the class.

“Brutal. Dokyeom wanted me to reach up to SI and my voice was not having it.” Joshua pulled out a water bottle from his backpack and drank from it.

Vernon and Joshua are both in School of Music, and while Joshua is in vocal music, Vernon was in musicology. They usually met up after class and Vernon would drop Joshua off at his apartment before going to his dorm.

“Any plans for tonight?” Vernon asks Joshua as they get into his car.

“Bed? I had to wake up super early this morning, my brain is not functioning properly anymore. Who was the devil that created 7:30am classes?” Joshua says as he puts on his seat belt.

Vernon shrugs. “I wouldn’t know, my concentration courses only begin at 10 earliest, so~” 

Joshua sends him a glare as he starts the car and backs out of his parking. “Not everyone can live such a luxurious life, aye,” he pauses before continuing his rant, “and vocal classes on top of it! Who’s idea? Seriously! My morning voice is terrible, who would ever want to listen to that.”

Vernon laughs as his friend keeps on ranting. “Clearly, they want you guys to improve on your morning voices.”

“That’s what Dokyeom says,” he whines, rolling his eyes and letting his head loll to the window.

Vernon took his eyes off the road to for a second to look at his friend. He smiles as he turns on the radio. They rest of the ride is pretty quiet after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I find writing exposition easier than anything else. There is a little bit left before I gotta start thinking of, you know, an actual plot. This story feels like brain vomit tbh, even I have no idea where this is going. It's gonna have to start going somewhere next chapter though~


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Homophobia  
> No plot but hey, a suBJECT to base this chapter on.  
> I had a lot to say apparently, it's the longest chapter yet at 4000 words  
> So, hope you enjoy it. ^^  
> ps that flashback gave me a headache attempting to edit so I'm done with it and it's staying as it is.

Chan can’t believe that he is actually walking through the halls of Chung-Ahg University of the Arts with his dance teammates, but that is exactly what he’s doing. He and his dance-mates have been practicing for months for the yearly dance competition that Chung-Ahg University puts on. The prize is a full scholarship for the first year at the university and Chan has been eyeing this school for such a long time that he has been working his ass off for this. Even though he still has another year of high school to go, the offer lasts for up to 3 years, and he hopes to be attending here in two years. 

They visit the theatre that they will be performing in and hype each other up because nobody believes this is actually happening. The performance is happening in three days so he and his six dance-mates rented 3 rooms in a hotel nearby so that they would be close by for when the competition starts. They’re even granted practice time slots throughout the next few days to practice and perfect. However, they’ve decided that they will practice at a nearby park when they don’t have the studio to themselves because they can’t lose this.

Chan and two other friends decide to stop off at a coffee shop before heading over for practice; to get their necessary caffeine intake before starting off what they know is going to be a long~ day. 

“Three large iced americanos, please,” he requests when he gets to the counter. 

“No problem,” the man at the counter says as he punches in their order on the cash register. “12,450₩.”

Chan hands over his money and is told to wait on the side for their order and so they do. He mindlessly looks around the shop while his friends are having a conversation with each other. He ends up locking eyes with a guy with the chestnut brown hair and round glasses with a thin gold frame and frowns a bit.

_I know him_ , he thinks but for the life of him can’t remember where from until he sees the group of people he’s with and freezes. His heart feels like it can pound out of his chest and he balls his hands into loose fists because he’s shaking so much.

“Oh my God.”

-

Wonwoo is at the café where he works hanging out with a few friends, namely Jihoon, Seungcheol, Joshua, and Jeonghan. However, it doesn’t feel like he’s the only single one there and he silently thanks his friends for not acting all couple-y while he _is_ there because he probably would have left a long time ago. They’ve been there for about an hour and a half now. They’re about one month into the semester and they all needed a break from their projects so some of them decided to meet up at the café for their much needed dose of caffeine. 

It’s when a group of three boys walk in that he just kind of observes them from afar, and when one of them steps forward to order for them all he squints at him because he knows him and it’s only when they lock eyes that he immediately realizes who the younger kid is and he looks over to Seungcheol on his left and elbows him. Seungcheol notices only too late.

“S-seungcheol?” 

Chan approaches them at the table. Wonwoo is biting the inside of his cheek and adamantly looking in front of him at Joshua who doesn’t know anything about this. He wants to look at Seungcheol though, because he knows he should be there for him. 

Seungcheol used to talk about Chan all the time, but stopped after he moved into the apartment with Jihoon. 

“Chan,” he hears his friend say, but it’s barely audible.

“I can’t believe i-it’s you. You changed your phone number. I couldn’t reach you…” 

Wonwoo finally looks over at Seungcheol, he looks shaken. Wonwoo carefully raps his arm around Seungcheol’s, letting him know that it’s ok. In his peripheral vision, he could see Jihoon scoot closer to Seungcheol too.

“Mom and dad got into this big argument- I know why you never came back, so you can stop lying to me about it.” 

Wonwoo turns his attention to Chan who looks down at their table. 

“I- haven’t seen you in so long, I miss you Cheol.” Wonwoo thinks the younger one is about to start shedding tears; but he seems to be keeping them in well.

“I hope this will matter to you, but I don’t care that you’re with Jihoon; I wouldn’t have if you told me earlier either.”

Seungcheol still hasn’t said anything, he’s still looking at Chan with his eyes wide. Chan, Wonwoo thinks, seems to realize something, but he responds when his friends call him saying they’ll be late for practice.

He nods slowly, seemingly acknowledging that Seungcheol isn’t going to say anything. “I’m in this dance competition being held at the university here in three days, so I’ve got to practice. Hopefully I’ll see you soon.” With that he sniffles as he goes to join his friends. 

Nobody says anything for a good five minutes after that. 

“Alright, refills anyone,” Jeonghan says as he gets up, everyone except Seungcheol shows a hand. Jeonghan nods slowly as he goes to the cashier.

“Cheol?” Wonwoo prompts. He knows his friend isn’t ok, so questions like ‘are you ok?’ aren’t the most useful when he knows the answer already. But he doesn’t know what to say, he can’t believe Seungcheol’s brother showed up just under ten minutes ago. Seungcheol didn’t need this, he cut his ties for a reason.

He sees Jihoon’s hand lace with Seungcheol’s but he’s not really receptive and if he acknowledges that Jihoon just took his hand, or that Wonwoo just said something, then he doesn’t make any motion to confirm that. It’s when Jeonghan comes back with their drinks that he gets up slowly. Everyone pauses what they’re doing and looks up at him. 

“I need some fresh air,” he says as he slides out of his chair. 

“Do- do you want company?” Jihoon says carefully, but even he doesn’t seem like he should be asking that question. It’s true that Seungcheol likes having people around him, but something so close to home like this, Wonwoo didn’t think he wanted anyone with him. His thoughts were confirmed when Seungcheol just shakes his head as he continues walking for the door.

 

“We all kind of didn’t know what to do after that, I still feel uneasy about everything,” Wonwoo tells Jun after he explains what had happened earlier with Seungcheol. 

After they finished their drinks, they all split up. It wasn’t really long after Seungcheol left because the atmosphere was so tense that they didn’t know how to react to that. They all expressed their concern and shock that Chan would even be in the same area as Seungcheol, save Joshua who just stayed silent. He didn’t know what happened, but Wonwoo assumes Jeonghan is going to let him in after what had happened. 

Jun leans into him, wrapping an arm around his torso. “Are _you_ ok?” 

They’re on Jun’s bed right now and it’s about 9pm, so Wonwoo thinks he’s just going to stay over at Jun’s dorm for the night because his emotional exhaustion is seeping into his physical exhaustion. Besides, they’re under the covers, he’s warm, he knows he has no intention on leaving. 

“Not if Cheol isn’t,” he shrugs, “the whole point of him moving out with Jihoon after grad and changing his number was to leave all that shit he went through behind. I know that Chan isn’t the problem, but when he left to come here he wanted to keep everything that wasn’t in Seoul out of it, that meant Chan too.”

“Why don’t you ask him then? You don’t seem ok.”

“Tomorrow, I will. I just think he needs time to digest what just happened himself.” Wonwoo closes his eyes. He feels Jun press his lips against his temple, and it takes every fibre of his being to not let his heart speed up. Not when they were this close. Jun is very free with his affection, hugs, cuddles, kisses, you name it, his closest friends— single ones anyway, have been on the receiving end. They all kind of just accept it. He does it out of comfort or happiness, and unlike the rest of them, Wonwoo would want it to mean something more. 

It’s definitely not a secret that Wonwoo has these feelings for Jun, he doesn’t reject the answer when his friends ask about it. He doesn’t show it much to Jun though, because Jun is a really special person to him. Besides, Jun has been in way too many toxic relationships that he would like to see him heal from them first. He is that one friend in the group that everyone just wants to keep in bubble wrap and Wonwoo is no exception, so he doesn’t mind waiting for him. 

Jun sinks lower in the bed and rests his head on Wonwoo’s shoulder. “I think we should sleep.” Wonwoo only nods his head, as he thought, he doesn’t leave.

-

Seuncheol needs a huge breath of fresh air after what just happened. He’s surprised he didn’t run to the door. Seeing Chan after so long brought back so much that he intended to leave behind, before he came to Seoul. He walks for about 10 minutes maybe until he arrives at Han River and sits down at the closest bench available. He’s winded by the whole ordeal. 

He hates remembering everything that happened. He hates going back to that which is why he moved away. He hangs his head down and takes a deep breath. If he didn’t have to leave, he probably wouldn’t have; but he got kicked out, so he had to leave. 

 

_“Sorry I’m so late, I was out with friends and—” Seungcheol paused mid-sentence when he saw his parents in the living room. His mom looked like she had been crying, and his dad looked red from anger. It definitely wasn’t a sight he would ever see so he was cautious going into the living room. “What’s wrong?”_

_“This,” his dad said opening a folded piece of paper, then handing over what Seungcheol guessed to be a letter, and he shoved it into Seungcheol’s chest, which rose his anxiety because he normally had such a good relationship with his dad._

_“I don’t under—” That’s when he took the letter from his hand that was pressed against his chest and recognized the page immediately. He felt his heart sinking._

_It was the letter he had wrote to his crush about a year ago, who also happened to be male. He never sent it, he kept it at the bottom of his drawer and had completely forgotten about it. While his parents had a good hearts, they were super conservative and being gay didn’t have a place in this house; he always knew, but now he knows and he knew it would hurt, but nothing could prepare him for what happened next._

_“What is the meaning of this! I will not tolerate_ this _kind of behaviour, from my own son!” His neck veins were starting to show and Seungcheol didn’t know how to answer him._

_“I’m sorry, dad.” The comment he got hit him like a ton of bricks, he felt winded and so, so anxious._

_“Now, you tell me, was this a one time thing?” He realized his dad is giving him a chance to tell him that it was a phase or something like that, and Seungcheol was very much contemplating it. He has been living a lie to his parents for most of his life and he didn’t mind continuing, but he knew that his relationship with his parents won’t be the same after this, no matter what he says. He thinks his parents deserve at least the truth._

_He looks over to his mom who is sitting down, her tears have stopped but she’s not looking directly at him which hurts more than his dad yelling at him for something he couldn’t control._

_“_ Choi Seungcheol! _” He yells, and only then Seungcheol realized he took too long to answer._

_He closed his eyes and a few tears fell through because he can’t believe this is the way he’s coming out to his parents who he thought would love him unconditionally, and that he was so close with before. “No,” he said after opening his eyes again._

_“Get out.”_

_Seungcheol felt himself paling. “D-dad?”_

_“You heard me,” he said calmly, “no son of mine is a faggot.”_

_Sure, he’s heard the term before, but it has never hurt as much as his dad calling him that. He was so shocked. He turns to his mom and she’s crying again, but not defending him in the least and it's hurting him so much._

_“Ok,” he said but his voice cracked and he didn’t know what to think anymore._

_He doesn’t remember packing a suitcase and travel carrier but he did both of those things and turned up on Jihoon’s street. Half of him was freaking out because he and Jihoon have only been dating for 3 weeks and he's showing up on his doorstep asking to stay for a while because his parents just kicked him out for being gay, but Soonyoung and Wonwoo live too far to walk and he didn’t know what to do._

Honestly, Seungcheol doesn’t remember much of that night and he would like to forget it all but he knows that Jihoon and his family took him in. 

Unlike Seungcheol, Jihoon’s family is super accepting of his sexual orientation. He does remember crying a lot the first week he was there and Chan asking what happened but he didn’t know because he wasn’t there and Seungcheol didn’t want to let him know so he told him lies instead.

At first, he would meet up with Chan and they would text often but it would tempt him to go back home and make things right even if he knew they wouldn’t be.

Jihoon was the one who suggested that they move into their own apartment in Seoul when they both got accepted to Chung-Ang University. Seungcheol used to be so anxious when they would go out incase they would run into his parents and he wouldn’t allow any PDA ever.

Jihoon figured it was so and he let Seungcheol know, which is why he also changed his number when he left, so that he doesn’t have to stress about it.

Seungcheol decides he would really like to be with his boyfriend right now, so he gets up and makes the 20 minute walk to their place. Jihoon has been there for Seungcheol since the beginning, for about the first year that they were together it was just nervousness, self-doubt, and self-hatred, to an extent, and Jihoon was there to give him hugs and let him know that he shouldn’t blame himself for his parents ideals. 

 

When he gets home, he opens the door to Jihoon producing a song; he’s seen that program so many times before, he automatically knows. When Seungcheol closes the door behind him, Jihoon turns around which means he was waiting for him to come home; his music wasn’t loud enough to ignore the world like it normally is.

“Hey~” Jihoon says in a soft voice while taking off his headphones, “feeling better?”

Seungcheol smiles as he drops his eyes to the floor, “I thought of you and I felt better.”

“Ah~, don’t say cheezy things,” Jihoon says as he makes his way over to Seungcheol and gives him a hug.

Seungcheol closes his eyes and hugs him tighter. He wasn’t lying.

He feels Jihoon give him a kiss on his neck before breaking apart. 

“I wasn’t lying,” Seungcheol starts as he hunches his back a bit to be at Jihoons height, “I thought about back then, and how you made it a lot easier to cope with. I really don’t know what I would have done without your support, honestly.” He gives him a kiss, “thank you,” he says sincerely, before wrapping his arms around Jihoon’s neck and giving him many more kisses.

-

Seungkwan is sitting down on the living room couch with Vernon before he hears a knock on the door. He turns to Vernon and he looks just as confused. Seungkwan takes his legs off Vernon’s before the other gets up to answer the door. 

“Joshua?” Seungkwan’s head perks up. Usually Joshua lets them know that he’s coming, it’s rare that he just appears on their doorstep. 

“Hey~” Joshua says, but its low, Seungkwan could barely hear it and now he’s confused. Seungkwan gets up to greet his friend.

“Sorry to bother you guys,” Joshua says as he takes off his shoes and Seungkwan could tell just by his voice that something is wrong.

“Something’s off, what’s wrong?” Vernon looks at Seungkwan before looking back at his best friend.

“Is everything ok?” his boyfriend asks, “where’s Jeonghan?”

“Home. I, uh, told him that we made plans, I just— i don’t know,” he says before he sighs, running a hand through his hair.

“How about tea and a penny for your thoughts?” Seungkwan offers before taking both his hands and dragging him into the kitchen and sitting him down on a chair at the kitchen table. Vernon follows them and sits down next to Joshua while Seungkwan takes out a pot to boil water in.

“What’s going on?” Vernon asks in English, but before Joshua can answer back Seungkwan cuts in.

“Um, I don’t think so, you’re having this conversation in Korean because I need to know what’s going on too!”

“I’m sorry Seungkwan, it’s a force of habit,” Vernon says before he asks the same question but in Korean. 

It’s not like Seungkwan doesn’t know English; he’s taken a few language classes and his boyfriend speaks it often enough that he picks up on words and phrases. This has to do with Joshua and his problems though, so he wants to know whats going on with his friend and he doesn’t want to be left out on any details.

“I don’t know,” Joshua starts and he lets out a nervous chuckle, “We were with some of Jeonghan’s friends today, and uh- one of his friend’s brother came and he hadn’t seen him in a long time and his friend was so shocked when his brother left that he went to go take a walk. Turns out, Jeonghan’s friend was kicked out by his parents because he was gay. Jeonghan let me know about it after that weird interaction between him and his brother. I don’t know, I just feel like—” he sighs, “I mean, my parents, they don’t know I’m in a relationship, let alone with a guy. It was just a big slap in the face that people like that still exist. And then I thought, what if my parents do that? What if they disown me?” he puts his head in his hands and rubs his temples, “I don’t think I could live with that.”

Seungkwan looks over at Vernon who he catches looking at him. That was quite something, he thinks and judging by Vernon’s wide-eyes he’s thinking the same thing. He looks at the pot and realizes the water is already boiling so it takes it off the stove pot and takes out three mugs before pouring the water into them and inserting the tea bags. He brings the mugs to his boyfriend and friend before taking his own and sitting down with them. 

“I didn’t know that your parents didn’t know,” was all Seungkwan had in him to say. He knows Joshua comes from a religious family so he doesn’t know how they’ll take it, but he doesn’t want to confirm Joshua’s thoughts by saying it; nor does he want to give him false hope by saying otherwise. 

“I don’t know Seungkwan, would you like to tell your religious parents that you like girls _and boys_?” Joshua asks sarcastically, “‘Cause I have a feeling that isn’t going to go over very well.”

Seungkwan looks over to Vernon. “Got anything?” he asks sipping his tea

Vernon has his lips in a tight line. “Seungkwan was nervous when he told his family though.”

Seungkwan almost spits his tea. He didn’t think that’s where his boyfriend was gonna go but here they are. “Yeah, because being anything other than straight hasn’t been recognized as a norm here yet,” Seungkwan says while glaring at Vernon, “I wanted to tell them because Vernon and I had been together for, I guess a year back then? So I knew it wasn’t some sort of ‘phase’,” he says putting up air quotes, “and I didn’t want to keep lying to them about it so I decided to tell them.”

Vernon laughs. “You say it like it wasn’t that big a deal,” he turns to Joshua, “Joshua it’s not easy. It’s wasn’t easy for me or him, the inner turmoil that I’m sure everyone goes through; wondering if they’ll still have people to call a family after that is real, and it’s scary. You have every right to feel what your feeling. Your parents are religious and who knows if they’re going to side with their son or the bible; it’s terrifying, I get it.” 

Seungkwan is just observing, Vernon is Joshua’s best friend so he feels like it’s valid to hear these things from him.

“Honestly,” Vernon continues, “It’s up to you if you wanna say something. Some people go through their whole lives without saying anything. But if you do want to tell them, just know that if everything goes to hell, you definitely have us on your side, and you have Jeonghan who I know will support you 100%. I know that it won’t necessarily make you feel better, but just know that we’re here for you.”

Joshua smirks while looking at the table. “You’re right, it doesn’t. They are my family, and having them not be accepting would wreck me,” he says, fidgeting with his nails, “Still grateful that I have you guys to ugly cry too.”

 

Joshua ended up leaving about an hour later. Seungkwan was sure that he would end up staying the night but he didn’t. 

“Should I be concerned that he’s talking to us about this but not Jeonghan?” Seungkwan asks when they’re in bed later. Seungkwan is leaning against Vernon who has his head propped up on a pillow that’s slightly lifted. Their dorm had two beds originally, they just put them both together and made one big bed instead.

“I don’t know Seungkwan, how would you feel if I said something like ‘I’m having trouble coming out to my family, so I pretend you don’t exist to them. And they mean everything to me so if it’s you or them, sorry’? Like?” 

Seungkwan lifted his head to look at him and Vernon was sporting a raised eyebrow for him when he did. Seungkwan shot him a look back.

“Vernon that’s literally what you’re thinking about all the time when you’re dating someone who hasn’t come out yet. I’m sure Jeonghan knows the consequences.”

“Doesn’t hurt any less?” Vernon says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Seungkwan you forget, my parents knew before I even dated you, I was the one who had to worry if I was still going to be your boyfriend afterwards.”

Seungkwan stroked Vernon’s hair before giving him a kiss, “You didn’t have to. Yes I was worried, but if they couldn’t accept me for who I was then I wasn’t going to keep lying to them. I probably would have done what Jeonghan’s friend did and left.”

Vernon raised both eyebrows mockingly, “I still worried.”

Seungkwan smiles before hitting him on the chest. He then lay back down against his boyfriend’s chest. “I’ve never been more happy with someone my entire life, you have nothing to worry about,” Seungkwan says as he closes his eyes. Vernon hugs him tighter and that’s the last thing he remembers before he falls asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

It’s the middle of October and mid-terms are coming along. Minghao is writing up the steps to his routine in his kitchen while his roommate and Wonwoo are in the living room. From his position on the chair, he could see them on the couch watching something but the tv volume isn’t really loud, which is why Minghao can concentrate in the kitchen. Jun has his head on Wonwoo’s shoulder and he looks like he’s falling asleep. Wonwoo is one of Jun’s friends that he sees at his dorm very often. Jun tells him that they’re close friends and he’ll believe that.

He wants to ask Jun a certain question about a transition move he’s having trouble with but he decides to wait it out and put a star on the page instead, reminding him to come back to it later. 

Jun has been super helpful to him throughout the semester, they had spent all-nighters in their dorms or at the studio when the one of them was having a particularly hard time getting through a routine, and he really appreciates that about his room mate. He knows that Jun has done the same for Soonyoung, so it’s not like he’s getting special treatment or anything but he is really appreciative of him anyways. 

He hears a soft ping from his phone and looks over to see a message from Mingyu.

 **From: Mingyu**  
How’s the dance routine coming along?

 **To: Mingyu**  
It’s coming, I think I want to start studying for that theory class. I have an exam in like a week.

 **From: Mingyu**  
Wanna come study with me? I’m really having trouble focusing at home. Was thinking about going to the cafe and get some caffeine. 

Minghao chuckles to himself.

 **To: Mingyu**  
Sure, I’ll be there in 20.

Minghao gets up from his chair which makes a small screech on the floor boards which interrupts the two on the couch from whatever they were watching on tv.

Jun makes a small sound as his head lifts from Wonwoo’s shoulder. “Where are you going?” He asks sleepily, stretching his arm that’s farthest from Wonwoo. Wonwoo only looks at Minghao.

“Uh... Mingyu wanted someone to study with, so I’m meeting him at Wonwoo’s work to study.”

“You’ve been hanging out with him a lot recently,” Jun comments, Wonwoo only nods his head.

“Yeah~, friends can do that,” Minghao says as he raises an eyebrow. It’s not that Jun doesn’t have a point, Mingyu has been asking him on study dates a lot which is fine because it gets Minghao out of the house and out of the studio. Besides, he knows that if he doesn’t go with Mingyu, those theory class tests wouldn’t get studied for as much, so in hindsight he’s grateful. Mingyu is also really helpful for his Korean skills; he has been helping Minghao out since they decided to meet up to study.

Of course that didn’t happen just like that. Minghao had run into Mingyu when he visited the café a week after their encounter at school when Minghao had gotten lost on his way to the studio. Minghao was waiting for his coffee when he noticed Mingyu studying there and sat down in front of him.

_“Homework?” he asked the taller._

_“Huh?” Mingyu was slightly startled. “Oh, hey,” he said, returning back to his notes, “yeah, I’m making notes for the test I’m going to have. Gotta get a head start or else I’ll fall behind.”_

_Minghao nodded his head, “I have some theory classes to study for also, mind if I join you?”_

_Mingyu nodded as he smiled at him, “sure.”_

Ever since then they’ve been meeting up twice a week to study together. Usually at the cafe, or sometimes in the library that’s part of the School of Design because it’s the most aesthetically pleasing.

“Hey,” Minghao says when he spots Mingyu in the cafe in a four seater next to the window. “Are we expecting more people?”

“No,” Mingyu replies, “there’s just more space for us to spread out our stuff if we sit in a four seater.”

Minghao puts his bag on the seat next to him and takes out his books. He’s grateful because if ever he has a question, and trust him to have many, Mingyu helps him out without giving Minghao the feeling that he’s bothering him. 

Mingyu gets up to get himself a coffee and returns with two and gives one to Minghao. 

“What’s this?” Minghao asks, pointing his pen to the cup.

“Your dry cappuccino,” Mingyu says nonchalantly while picking up his pencil.

“I didn’t ask for one?”

“You didn’t have to, you were going to get one anyway, so I saved you the trip.”

Minghao raises his eyebrow and looks to Mingyu who has returned his attention to his work. So, he took out his wallet to pay his friend back.

“No,” Mingyu says without lifting his head.

Minghao shifts his eyes. “You’re not paying for me.”

Mingyu stopped writing and looked at Minghao. “I just did. Repeat after me ‘thank you Mingyu’ and go back to work”

“Thank you Mingyu,” he says begrudgingly as he took a sip from his coffee.

———

Joshua is very glad when he and Dokyeom have finished their practice, he feels like he sang his voice raw and he doesn’t know how he’ll handle simple conversations tomorrow. 

“Are you going to go straight home?” Dokyeom asks as he packs his sheets into his backpack. 

“Why?”

“I was going to get a tea before heading home if you wanna come.” Joshua thinks about that for a second. A tea would feel so freaking fantastic right now. So, he agrees and they head toward the closest cafe to the university which happens to be the one Wonwoo works at. He wonders if Wonwoo is working today before he opens the door and lets Dokyeom go in first. While they wait in line he shoots a quick text to his boyfriend wondering if he wanted a tea as well before he goes home.

He sees a man that’s definitely not Wonwoo but decides to ask anyways. “Hey, is Wonwoo working today?” he asks as he approaches the counter. “It’s his day off actually, so anything I could get you for?” the barista asks.

“Dokyeom you could go first, I’m waiting on Jeonghan.”

As his friend places his order he gets a message from Jeonghan so he orders next. “Alright, so I’ll take the large peach flavoured tea, and a medium iced green tea latte please.” The man punches in the order before he pays him and they wait on the side for their drinks. Joshua mindlessly looks around when he spots Mingyu with someone. His drinks are ready and he heads towards Mingyu before he leaves to say hi.

“Hey Mingyu, didn’t think I would run into you here,” he says as Mingyu looks up from his books. The other man he’s with looks up as well. 

“Oh, hey Shua, I’m actually in here a lot actually. We study together regularly,” he says pointing back and forth between him and his companion. “This is Minghao, he’s actually roommates with Jun.”

“Nice to meet you,” he says bowing to Minghao, “I’m Joshua. And guys this is Dokyeom, we’re friends; we do vocal practice together.”

After the quick introductions and small talk with Mingyu and Minghao, Joshua and Dokyeom split ways after leaving the cafe.

When Joshua returns home, the apartment is quiet and dark so he wonders if Jeonghan is sleeping or even home.

He locks the door behind him and takes off his shoes and coat before heading over to his room before he spots his boyfriend on the couch. “Hey? Is everything ok?” He asks handing Jeonghan his drink. Jeonghan looks at him with sleepy eyes and takes his drink not replying.

“Wanna talk to me?” he asks as he sits down next to him bringing him in close. 

“I just…” he starts and lets out a sigh, he doesn’t continue right away and Joshua knows better than to interrupt so he patiently waits massaging circles into Jeonghan’s bicep where his hand is resting. He pulls him in closer and kisses the temple of his forehead before leaving his lips there.

“I really _can’t_ do this,” he says after a while. Joshua pulls back a bit but keeps his boyfriend close. “I’m one of the main characters in the play this year and I’ve never felt more,” he pauses and gestures weirdly with his hands before giving up, “boxed-in in any other role before,” he pauses a minute before continuing, “Everyone is expecting so much and I,” his voice cracks and he looks down fidgeting with his hands.

Joshua continues doing the little massages with his thumb on Jeonghan’s bicep while he waits for him to continue. When he doesn’t Joshua finally chimes in. “You can do it, Jeonghan. You always do.”

Jeonghan sighs loudly, “it’s not the same. I was always a supporting character, I could do my own thing while sticking to the character and nobody really says anything ever. Now I have a main role and everything I do isn’t good enough. You know what comment I got today, _‘Jeonghan, what happened?’_ I did nothing different than I normally do but I’m in the spotlight now, it’s different.”

Joshua sees Jeonghan’s phone light up with a text message and he sees that his screen is full of them before it fades back to black. Jeonghan seems to notice, so he answers the silent question. “Seungkwan has been trying to contact me after I beelined out of practice. And I know he means well, but I don’t want to talk to anyone right now,” he says as he leans into his boyfriend.

“You need to find confidence in yourself. You are an amazing performer and I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. You see this as a bigger challenge than it ought to be, and then you get so anxious about how big you inflated this problem in your head that you’re not seeing anything else.

“You know what I think, speak with Seungkwan. I know for a fact that he eases your worries so much and I’m so thankful to him for that. Go practice with him, he will help you and you’ll be fine.”

Joshua isn’t dumb. He knows that Jeonghan’s anxiety gets out of hand sometimes and he digs himself a hole so big that even he can’t take him out of it. And he knows that saying what he is isn’t going to stop his stress from happening, but he hopes it temporarily helps him and makes him feel a little better. Seungkwan is much better at these things than he is and he’s never valued someone so much for Jeonghan than he does with Seungkwan, and he trusts that he’ll give him the confidence he needs to get out of this hole.

“I think we should sip our teas, order Chinese, watch a few Disney movies, and call it a night,” he says as Jeonghan looks up to him, “what do you think?”

Jeonghan kisses him full on the lips. “Thank you.” And Joshua feels so much from that.

———

“Oh wait, I like that beat the… du du du du dUN,” Soonyoung says, using his finger as emphasis for the notes, as he scoots closer to Jihoon. They’re both sitting in front of Jihoon’s computer.

“Ok, good,” Jihoon says as he saves the file.

“How about-”

“Jihoon, I swear to God I need to get away from this computer.”

“You’re right,” the shorter agrees before he pushes his keyboard back in. “Mario Kart?” 

“This is why we’re best friends,” Soonyoung says as he happily lifts himself from the computer chair. Jihoon chuckles in response as he goes to set up the WII, it’s been a while since he’s used it. Soonyoung sits himself on the couch. Normally, this close to midterms both of them would never be procrastinating like this but Jihoon has been sitting in front of that computer for the better part of the last two days and Soonyoung has been in the studio all week they both needed a break. 

Today, Soonyoung invited himself over to Jihoon’s because he needed a break, Jihoon doesn’t mind it either as Soonyoung choreographs, he catches on to beats well and he’s not afraid to tell Jihoon his music is a piece of shit when it is, and Jihoon values that in their friendship.

“You know, I’m surprised you didn’t go to Wonwoo today,” Jihoon says as he sits on the couch to Soonyoung’s left. 

“Are you really? I feel like he’s with Jun more often than not recently.”

Jihoon raises an eyebrow. “Are you really jealous over this?”

Soonyoung rolls his eyes. “No~, I’m not. Wonwoo has a thing for Jun for like… I don’t know, a year now? The way I see it, after Jun’s last boyfriend, he’s finally giving Wonwoo attention now, and Junhui has a horrible track record oh my god. Don’t you just hate them all?”

“Uh, I think Cheol and I saw one of his ex’s at a bar and Cheol was about to punch the guy. Why is his luck like that? I’m actually hoping he finally looks at Wonwoo like Wonwoo has been looking at him for the past year, I can’t take another asshat around him.” Jihoon passes Soonyoung a controller.

“It just sucks cause I haven’t seen Wonwoo for a solid 5 minutes in like 2 weeks. And we _live together_.”

“You’re literally at the studio 25/8, what do you want him to do? I’m sure he sees Mingyu just fine.” 

Soonyoung shrugs, “I think the only people I see often enough is you, Jun, and Minghao.”

“Mingyu’s friend?” Jihoon asks as he clicks the two player option and then the 150cc category. 

“Mingyu?” Soonyoung looks at Jihoon with a raised eye brow, “he’s _Jun’s_ roommate!”

Jihoon put his hands up to his sides in surrender, “Hey I don’t know, I see him with Mingyu a lot at the cafe studying together.”

Soonyoung squints his eyes, “Interesting…” he stays as he starts choosing a character immediately going for Yoshi.

“Why?” Jihoon heads for Rosalina.

“Minghao never talked to me about Mingyu, I didn’t even know they were close. Are you really choosing Rosalina?”

“Are you really going to argue with me about choosing the guardian-ess of the galaxy? Besides, she has a Luma that follows her around! See if I care about any of the characters after I unlocked her.” Jihoon says as he clicks select to bring them to the page to choose their karts.

“Which cup are we gonna do first?” Soonyoung asks.

“Koopa cup!” Jihoon says as he hovers the pointer over it and clicks.

“You know, maybe we should all go out, not to the cafe again, really out like to a club or something.”

“After midterms,” Jihoon says as he starts the race.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! School is kicking me so hard in the butt this semester. But the last few days I found a lot of inspiration to write so I got a chapter out. This story is only going through one semester though, and I still need to calculate how many chapters that means are left. We shall see~  
> Hope you enjoy!


End file.
